New Ideas CityHello Museum

“In the future, there will be no waste…”

Part of the ETH Zurich Future Garden and Pavilion program

The IDEAS CITY Festival theme for 2015, The Invisible City, borrows from Italo Calvino’s classic novel exploring the invisible constructs that holds a city together. Two panels will pursue this theme further by asking “What cultural practices define the future smart city, and where can we chart the boundaries between design methodology and ethical practice?” The first panel will explore how material cycles and waste management can be further integrated into design practice. The second panel will ask “How invisible ecologies can be represented and made visible and urgent?”

RSVP here.

5:30 PM Panel 1: “In the future, there will be no waste…”
Dirk Hebel, Assistant Professor, ETH Zurich
Phillippe Block, Associate Professor, ETH Zurich
David Benjamin, Assistant Professor, Columbia GSAPP
Moderator: Mark Wasiuta, Co-Director CCCP, Director of Exhibitions, Columbia GSAPP

6:30 PM Panel 2: Invisible Ecologies
Melanie Gilligan, Artist
Tom Ackers, Artist
Moderator: Leah Kelly, Research Associate, Rockefeller University

ETH Zurich brings a cutting-edge artifact of the future to the East Village: a pavilion created from waste materials. Recasting “trash” as a valuable asset, ETH Zurich Future Garden and Pavilion will redefine the notion of waste, acknowledging its value as a resource from which new cities can rise.

Waste belongs neither to the family of natural resources nor to the category of finished products. It has, until now, been a by-product—an (ideally) invisible part—of our cities. Featuring discarded beverage cartons as its construction material, the expressive roof structure will visually float in the narrow slot of the First Street Garden. The shape of the vault has been designed such that the stresses in the structure will be predominantly compressive, allowing the weak product to act as a structural material.

Over the course of three days, the ETH Zurich Future Garden and Pavilion will host events, workshops, and an exhibition outlining the future metropolis. Food and drinks will be provided by Café Select. Check back for updates on programming, times, and more information about how to RSVP here: ethmeetsyou.org / #ETHMeetsYou